


Emergency

by Raging_Celiac



Series: Cassidy Snow AU [3]
Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Gen, Hurt/Comfort, It went long, Lisa Snart is a hero now, Next Generation, She's a good aunt, This was originally a dialogue prompt, mostly - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-16
Updated: 2020-11-16
Packaged: 2021-03-08 19:42:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,355
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27402181
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Raging_Celiac/pseuds/Raging_Celiac
Summary: The day was normal before Cassidy started screaming.
Series: Cassidy Snow AU [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1807018
Kudos: 1





	Emergency

The day was normal before Cassidy started screaming.

Okay, that wasn’t entirely accurate - Cassidy wasn’t the type to get into fights, but babysitting the kid was fairly normal for her. She’d done it plenty of times, and while the news that Cassidy had gotten himself suspended was somewhat amusing, the bad attitude he carried into her house was certainly less so. Although, considering the amount of teen angst he’d garnered over the past few months, that didn’t faze Lisa much at this point, either. 

“Caitlin said no phone,” Lisa told him as Caitlin drove away, “you go to the kitchen and do your homework until she gets back.”

“Yeah,” Cassidy responded quietly, meekly producing his phone. His expression was halfway between a scowl and a frown, and warbled even as he stood still. 

Lisa squeezed his shoulder, and asked, “Did you win?”

Cassidy blinked at her like a fish out of water, “What?”

Ushering him inside, Lisa repeated, “Did you win?”

“Mom says that doesn’t matter,” Cassidy murmured, voice thin. Lisa shook her head. 

“Not surprised she’d tell you that,” Lisa shrugged, as Cassidy distracted himself by setting down his backpack and retrieving his schoolwork, “but how about you throw your Aunt Lisa a bone just this once, huh?”

“Mom says that-”

“I know,” Lisa smirked a bit, as Cassidy clutched a thick, navy blue binder, “but she’s not here right now, and I know you, Cass,” she ruffled his hair, “you’re a good kid. This probably isn’t gonna happen again, and I’m curious.”

One of Cassidy’s hands shot up the second Lisa’s vacated his head, and valiantly attempted to set his blond mop back into place, “I don’t wanna talk abut it.”

“Y’know,” Lisa said as they entered the kitchen, “I’m sure that Caitlin gave you this whole spiel about how you can never do this again, but just because she never did anything like this doesn’t mean you need to beat yourself up over it.”

Cassidy was quiet for a moment, wherein his face firmly slipped into a scowl, “I have homework to do.”

Lisa sighed, “Alright. But, really, don’t beat yourself up. Even Cisco got into fights when he was in school.”

Cassidy’s scowl deepened, “Thanks, Aunt Lisa.”

“Anytime,” Lisa said, her hand moving to ruffle his hair again. Cassidy dodged it, which made her chuckle.

Lisa relocated to her office. A cork board on the wall held the notes for the most recent meta - a guy who could turn his arms into metal blades. He’d attacked a woman named Grace Gibbons; Gibbons was a guard in Iron Heights who worked in the metahuman wing, but no-one with this power set had ever been detained there, so Lisa doubted there was any connective tissue there. 

She approached the cork board, her eyes lingering on the photo of the perp. He was a nobody: born and raised in Central City, early twenties, high school dropout. They’d found his mother very easily, and she told them that she was meta, too. Apparently, they shared powers. Lisa remembered the woman’s eyes, how she said: “He always struggled with them. He didn’t like keeping them a secret.”

Lisa wasn’t a fan of this case. Lia - her daughter - had inherited Cisco’s powers, and while she wouldn’t tell her, Lisa was wary of her going astray. She knew firsthand how slippery that slope was, and she had no interest in letting Lia take so much as a step toward it. 

Lisa’s musing were interrupted, however, by a scream. Loud, high-pitched, and recognizably her nephew’s - he’d inherited his face from Caitlin, but his voice was far and away father’s. Lungs too. 

Lisa stuck her head out of her office, asking, “Hey, uh, Cass? Why did you yell like that?”

She was met with silence. Lisa surveyed the hallway for a moment, ready to stick her head back into her office, only to hear another scream - same pitch as the last one, but with something pulling down into much lower tones. It was followed shortly by the sound of shattering glass, and Lisa rushed to the kitchen.

“Cass!” she yelled as she rounded the corner, “what’s going on?”

She narrowed her eyes. The kitchen was spotless. Cassidy’s binder was open, and a packet labeled “Honors Algebra I: Unit One: Solving Equations” was closed on top of it. Lisa snatched up the packet, not even bothering to parse Cassidy’s chicken scratch, but before she could even look through the binder again, she heard a third scream: except this time, it was harsher - colder.

Lisa called out for her nephew while she rushed up the stairs, checking rooms as she went, before stopping at the bathroom. Light pressed at its edges, and but there wasn’t any sign it was occupied otherwise. Lisa rapped on the door, demanding, “Cass, what the hell is going on with you?”

She wasn’t greeted with a proper response - just the quiet sound of breathing, short and fast, and the longer she stood at the door, the more she began to notice that the temperature seemed to be dropping. 

Lisa ignored that, however: the bathroom was among the worst places in a house to get injured in, and she didn’t care what super healing her nephew had, falling against tile could still do some damage, at least for a time. So, she asked, “Cass, what’s wrong? Do you need me in there?”

Her question wasn’t dignified with a response this time, either. Lisa rapped against the door again; after more silence, she did so once more; when she waited even longer and got nothing, she turned on her heel and made a beeline for the master bedroom. As she turned around, Lisa said, 

“I’m gonna open that door, Cass, and if you’ve done something, you’re in trouble, understand?”

Predictably, that garnered naught but silence, so Lisa had to use the key. When she got back to the door, she heard shuffling behind it. That did little to capture her attention, though. The main thing she noticed was that the door had grown frigid to the touch, and had frost biting at its edges. The sight gave Lisa pause, and a moment later, the realization struck.

Her stomach sinking, Lisa inserted the key and twisted the doorknob, but felt resistance. It took her nearly a minute of twisting to finally get into the bathroom. What met her eyes made her stomach drop straight into hell: the walls were covered in ice, which was thick enough in some places to that it was completely opaque, and thin enough in others that pieces had fallen onto the floor, creating jagged tendrils. The mirror was pieces in the sink, bits of it glinting in the light. Cassidy stood by the bathtub, hands covering his face, so pale that his skin had picked up a blue tint, blond hair a stark white. He was breathing fast.

Lisa paid the floor a glance before cautiously stepping toward him, “I...” Cassidy flinched at the sound of her voice, “... is there something you’d like to tell me, sweetheart?”

Lisa relaxed her posture. He watched her through his fingers, and she caught glimpses of blue-white irises that had previously been limited to one Caitlin Snow. 

“You aren’t in any trouble, sweetie,” Lisa said, “come on, let me see your face. I want to make sure you aren’t hurt.”

“Liar,” Cassidy answered, lacking the monotone Lisa expected, “you just said that if I’d done anything, I’d be in trouble.”

“Well,” Lisa replied smoothly, “that was before I saw all of this, Cass. You aren’t in any trouble for this.”

“I am for getting suspended.”

“I don’t want to talk about that right now,” Lisa said evenly, “you’ve already had consequences for that. I want to talk about you right now.”

“Mom will have more,” Cassidy said, “she’ll be pissed at me.”

“That isn’t important right now,” Lisa said, “come on, sweetie, I just wanna check your face for cuts, okay?”

Cassidy was silent for a final space, then slowly lowered his hands. Cuts were visibly fading from his digits and palms; his lips had turned blue; the eyes that stared at Lisa, once green, were now blue-white, and like Killer Frost’s, almost appeared fluorescent, even with the bathroom lights on.

Lisa approached him slowly, taking his hands and inspecting the cuts, which were almost gone. 

“What happened?” she asked gently. 

Cassidy stared up at her and bit his lower lip. He was still breathing far too quickly. 

“Take a deep breath, okay?” Lisa prompted, “How about we take a seat?”

“I...” Cassidy’s voice quavered, “... I don’t....”

Lisa tugged on his hands, sitting down. Cassidy watched her, and if she didn’t have anything else to read, Lisa would forgive another person for thinking he didn’t care. She tugged on his hands twice more, which got Cassidy down onto the floor. He studied his hands, his breath rattling.

“Deep breaths, Cassie,” Lisa said, “can you do that for me?”

“Mom’ll be so pissed,” his expression slipped down into a scowl, “when she-”

“Deep breaths,” Lisa interrupted firmly, “in... out. In... out. Come on, sweetie.”

“I nearly gave him frostbite,” Cassidy said, with a hard edge, “it - it wasn’t even hard. Once I grabbed his arm...” 

Lisa blinked, shaking her head, “Nearly, Cass. You’re not-”

“I just wanted him to _shut up,_ ” Cassidy grit out, “the teacher never does anything, and he never leaves me alone,” he started to glare.

Lisa put a hand on his shoulder, which was absolutely frigid, even through his t-shirt, “Calm down. You’re winding yourself up, Cassie.”

“I don’t know why Mom won’t let me out with Uncle Wally,” Cassidy muttered, “I’m fast enough. I’m almost as fast as my father was when he stopped the Singularity,” he gripped the fabric of his pants, freezing it, “all I do is train. I never get to do anything.” 

“You’re fourteen,” Lisa gripped his other shoulder, “I need you to calm down, Cassidy.”

“He talks to me like I’m just - like I’m _normal,_ ” Cassidy spat, ice spreading across the rest of his pants, “ _regular._ But I’m not. I’ll never be normal.”

“Cass, I need you to _calm down._ ”

“He brought up dad,” the anger in Cassidy’s voice seemed to quiver, “I was talking about one of my father’s old Flash figures, and he overheard, and he just-”

Maybe the light was playing tricks on her, but Lisa thought his eyes brightened. She ordered, “Cass, I need you to calm. Down. _Now._ ”

“He said dad was a loser,” flecks of green appeared in his irises, “like he was just - just - I didn’t... I don’t know, one second I was fine, the next I felt-”

Lisa pulled him close, and his head buried itself in her shoulder.

“... cold.”

Cassidy fell silent, and after a beat of silence, Lisa felt her shoulder wetting with his tears. At first, they were freezing, but as Cassidy’s hair started to turn brown again, they turned hot; Cassidy started to whimper and hugged her back tightly, trembling all the while. 

Lisa carded a hand through his hair as he cried, as water began to drip from the walls: the ice was starting to melt. The water droplets became an ambience of sorts, glistening as her nephew shook in her arms. 

Lisa wasn’t there for Killer Frost’s debut, but she understood well the look of shame that played itself out across Caitlin’s face whenever it was brought up. Killer Frost herself didn’t seem all that bothered by it, really, but she did have a tendency to shut down any conversation about it.

Lisa looked at the child clinging to her, sobbing in the way that Caitlin did, flush with heavy breathing and constant attempts to wrestle back composure, always lapsing at the last second. She promised herself that Cassidy would never go down the path that Killer Frost did. Not if she had any say in the matter. 

Her journey to this moment - to becoming a hero, getting a family, having a daughter of her own - it wasn’t like Lenny’s. Lenny had sacrificed himself to save all of time. Lenny was a martyr, but when Mick told her what had happened, she had laughed out loud. Her brother, saving other people? Sure, they did what they could to minimize casualties, but seriously? What had gotten into him? 

Cassidy sniffled, “I didn’t want to hurt him.”

Lisa nodded, “You didn’t do anything permanent. Everything’s fine, Cassie.”

“I don’t wanna be like her,” Cassidy said quietly, his hands falling away from her back, “like, how she was at first. I don’t...”

“I won’t let that happen,” Lisa told him, pushing him back so she could look him in the eyes. His hands were limp at his sides, and had regained much of their color, “I promise, okay? That won’t happen.”

“... I’m scared.”

“I won’t let that happen,” Lisa repeated firmly, “we’ll be there for you. Always.”

“It was so easy,” Cassidy looked down at his hands, “I didn’t even have to put any try.”

“We’ll teach you how to control it,” Lisa said, “I don’t care what it’ll take.”

“No,” Cassidy wagged his head, “you don’t - I wanted to hurt him. I...” he blinked several times, “... I _liked_ it.”

“I liked robbing people,” Lisa replied easily, “I liked hurting some of them, too,” Cassidy’s eyes widened slightly, as Lisa shook her own head, “it made me feel powerful. I’m guessing that’s what you felt, too?”

Cassidy swallowed, but inclined his head nonetheless.

“You aren’t a bad kid,” Lisa said, taking his hands, “I know that. You’re good - just like your mother, Cisco, and Lia. You’re good, Cassie. Please don’t forget that.”

“What about you?” Cassidy asked softly. 

“Take me as an example,” the corners of Lisa’s mouth turned up ruefully, “that just because you like bad things, doesn’t mean they have to define you.”

Cassidy stared at his aunt for a long moment, before throwing his arms around her, squeezing tightly. 

“Thank you,” he murmured, his head once again buried in her shoulder, “I love you.”

“Love you too, Cassie,” Lisa said, “you’re gonna be fine. I promise.”

**Author's Note:**

> I'm fully aware that this is probably confusing to anyone who doesn't have full context, but it was fun to write nonetheless! 
> 
> I really wish they'd given Lisa the character development she deserved. Honestly, she is a far more interesting love interest than the others they chose for him, and her actress brought a great mix of humanity and hard edges to her character, which I hope I wrote well. Also, playing around with a different sort of Killer Frost was great fun, too.
> 
> Anyways, I hope you liked reading this! Any kudos/bookmarks/comments would make my day. - Raging Celiac


End file.
